Biography
This article is about the American actor. For the Santa Cruz emo band go to Yaphet Kotto (band)
Yaphet Kotto starring on Homicide.
Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born November 15, 1937 in New York City) is an American actor. His father was a Igbo Jew from Cameroon and Kotto is a practicing Jew by faith. His father was royalty in Cameroon making Yaphet the son of the Crown Prince of the Royal Bell family of the Doualla region of West Africa's Cameroon.
He recently claims to have uncovered proof that he is the great-great-great-grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria. According to Kotto, the queen's son Prince Albert Edward VII had an illicit affair with Princess Nakande, daughter of King Doualla Manga Bell, producing the light-skinned Alexander Bell, Kotto's great-grandfather, but the deputy press secretary to Queen Elizabeth categorically refuted the story saying, " . . . Edward VII never visited Cameroon."
Bio
Kotto got his start in acting on Broadway, where he appeared in The Great White Hope, among other productions. His film debut was in 1963 in an uncredited role in 4 For Texas, but his first big break came in Nothing But a Man in 1964. He also starred as an auto worker alongside Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel in the commercial failure but cult favourite, Blue Collar. Kotto landed the role of the James Bond villain Mr. Big in Live and Let Die. Kotto also starred in Across 110th Street, Truck Turner, Alien.
He played Baltimore police Lieutenant Al Giardello in the television series Homicide: Life on the Street.
His son, Fredrick Kotto, is a real-life police officer with the city of San Jose, California.
Kotto campaigned for Steve Forbes's bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in the 2000 primary elections.
Kotto is married to Shirley Kotto, a Catholic, and recently claims to have seen the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Marmora, Ontario, Canada (known as Our Lady of Marmora). The couple have bought a house near Marmora and applied for landed immigrant status in Canada. It is unclear if Kotto has fully renounced his Jewish faith or not.
